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Created Mar 12, 2016 12:02AM PST • Edited Aug 23, 2019 05:29PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   London Has Fallen is a distinct improvement over Olympus Has Fallen, making it a 1st-rate action movie. The sequel improves the original by having a plausible villain, albeit amidst an equally implausible story. Throw in several well-earned laughs – amid the carnage – and you’ve got a helluva fun big-screen movie.

   Speaking of the original, Olympus (aka the White House) looks all shiny and new early in Has Fallen II. They’ve rebuilt the White House, I thought. Now it’s London’s turn, teeing up a spectacular disaster movie. Basically, a terrorist Godzilla hits Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and St Pauls. A stiff upper lip is required.

   Mike Banning – great character name – hits back. Gerard Butler reaches a career peak as Banning, former Special Forces, now POTUS’s bodyguard. Buff as Butler’s ever going to get, Banning credibly kicks ass, no matter how many murderous bastards come against him. Gerry Butler can bank Has Fallen III now.

   Olympus Has Fallen barely won the Decapitating America in 2013 sweepstakes. Now it’s found its footing. So which capital is next – Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Riyadh? The mind reels, but the world is this series’ oyster.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Gerard Butler is great as Mike Banning, the Special Agent in charge of the USSS’s PPD.

   • Radha Mitchell cuts the mustard playing his pregnant wife.
   • Aaron Eckhart is ideal as a macho POTUS.

   6 other World Leaders

   • British Prime Minister: Clarkson Guy Williams
   • French President: Anthony Delancy
   • Italian Prime Minister: Alex Giannini
     • Love his tryst atop Westminster Abbey with Elsa Mollien as a Berlusconi plaything
   • German Chancellor: Nancy Baldwin
   • Japanese Prime Minister: Tsuwayuki Saotome
   • Canadian Prime Minister: Nigel Whitmey

   US Officials

   • Morgan Freeman: Vice President of the United States
   • Angela Bassett: Secret Service Director
   • Robert Forster: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
   • Melissa Leo: SecDef
   • Jackie Earle Haley: White House Chief of Staff
   • Sean O’Bryan: NSA Deputy Director

   British Officials

   • Colin Salmon as Scotland Yard major domo
   • Charlotte Riley as a sexy British MI6 agent
   • Patrick Kennedy as MI5 Intelligence Chief

   Terrorists

   • Alon Moni Aboutboul as paterfamilias of a terrorist crime family
   • Waleed Zuaiter as his oldest son and chief lieutenant
   • Mehdi Dehbi as his youngest son, gravely wounded in a US drone strike

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    “Marine Two, assume sacrifice position” elevates London Has Fallen into something noble.

    Several death-defying bon mots give the film comic pace, not to mention some LOLs.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Babak Najaf, born in Iran, raised from 11 in Sweden, knows Islamist terrorism and Western living. He got recruited to direct this big action movie by the experienced producers and writers from the first Has Fallen movie. Good choices all around.

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt recycle their Has Fallen I story, after which they wrote the screenplay of Has Fallen II with Christian Gudegast & Chad St. John.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5

    • 100 stuntmen
    • Armorers
    • Pilots
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

    Seriously Sordid. Seriously.

17. Sex Innocent 1.4

18. Violence Savage 3.9

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.7

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.7

    3x CircoReality • 2x PhysioReality • 3x BioReality = 2.7x Overall Reality, aka Strongly Surreal

    Amazingly, London Has Fallen grades out as slightly less surreal than Olympus Has Fallen.

    Movie reality aside:

    • The notion of a coordinated and well-funded Islamist attack against Western capitals and leaders isn’t far-fetched. The 2015 Paris Massacres confirm that those perverted bastards will try anything.
    • Funny how lefty critics falsely assail London Has Fallen for being Islamophobic, yet didn’t score Olympus Has Fallen for being unfair to Koreans, which it was. Predictable hypocrisy, that.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Surreal 3.0

24. Physical Glib 2.0